Could you put down or iPhone or Blackbery? Could you turn off your laptop, netbook, desktop, TV, Wii, PS3 or Xbox? And then go 24 hours before you picked them up or hit the power button? A new study conducted by College Park researchers found that students at the university are addicted to their media devices.
Here's an excerpt:
"What is is like to go without media? What if you had to give up your cell phone, iPod, television, car radio, magazines, newspapers and computer (i.e. no texting, no Facebook or IM-ing)?
Could you do it? Is it even possible?
Well, not really, if you are an American college student today.
According to a new ICMPA study, most college students are not just unwilling, but functionally unable to be without their media links to the world.
"I clearly am addicted and the dependency is sickening," said one student in the study. "I feel like most people these days are in a similar situation, for between having a Blackberry, a laptop, a television, and an iPod, people have become unable to shed their media skin."
This new study conducted by the International Center for Media & the Public Agenda (ICMPA) asked 200 students at the University of Maryland, College Park to abstain from using all media for 24 hours. After their 24 hours of abstinence, the students were then asked to blog on private class websites about their experiences: to report their successes and admit to any failures. The 200 students wrote over 110,000 words: in aggregate, about the same number of words as a 400-page novel."
Read the blog post here.